1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related generally to hanging files, and more particularly to improved hanging files for operatively suspending a plurality of relatively large flat sheets or pages of blueprints or the like in such a manner so that the pages can be easily scanned or read while on the rack without interference from one another.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typically, in the prior art, relatively large flat pieces of paper or sheets of documents or the like, such as blueprints, were rolled into tight elongated rolls and placed in a generally cylindrical, cardboard, metal or plastic storage tube. These tubes were then labeled with the document or documents which were contained therein. However, when a person was searching for a particular document, he had to read the notations on the tubes, open the correct tube, remove the rolled pages, unroll the documents, separate the documents and read each one, and then roll the documents not required back into a roll and re-insert them again into the tube. All of this takes considerable time and effort, not to mention the frustration usually resulting from trying to read through previously rolled documents which have a tendency to try and roll up continuously while you are attempting to read or scan them.
Recently, however, various types of hanging files have been used. In the typical hanging file generally in use for blueprints and the like today, an aluminum or metal binder is suspended from it a pair of distending metal job portions, and the blueprints can be placed within the metal jaws. The jaws are then closed by mechanical means carried on the binder itself for closing the jaws to clamp the top edges of the blueprints or the like therein. Since this system utilizes relatively expensive and heavy metals parts and mechanical locking means, it is relatively expensive and difficult to repair and/or maintain, but it is in use commercially today. Furthermore, such systems are difficult, if not impossible, to read while various binders suspend the documents therefrom but must first be pulled or removed from the rack or storage unit, and then each of the mechanical means carried by the binder must be opened to release the jaws so that pages can be removed and studied. After a desired page is found, the remaining pages must be reinserted into the clamping mechanism and each of the clamps carried by the binder locked again before the unit is restored to its position on the rack or carrying means.
Therefore, the systems of the prior art are very time consuming, expensive, difficult to use and maintain, and relatively bulky and heavy to use. The present invention solves substantially all of the problems of the prior art hanging file systems while incorporating none of its shortcomings.